QUOTES - IMPORTANT QUOTATIONS AND ANALYSIS

The following quotations are important at various points in the story: (Source: A Reprint of William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1980/ First Eos trade paperback published 2003)

1. What mattered to me - I see it clearly now - was to be alone in the secret dark, where a man is his own master, except for death. (p. 18)

This quote, spoken by Merlin as narrator, reveals the solitude that Merlin both craved and feared through out his life.

2. . . . the god was there first and if I have his hill now, it is because he shares it with me.

(p. 22) Merlin is saying that he has always been in the hands of the god and no matter that the hill and the cave feel like his home, he must always share it with the One who first gave him his power.

3. They used to say in my country, the ring-dove has many enemies, because her flesh is sweet and her eggs are good to eat. But she lives and she prospers, because she runs away . . . you're not a falcon yet, young Merlin. You're only the dove. (p. 40)

Cerdic is telling Merlin that he must be like the ring-dove and run away until he is grown enough to fight back like the falcon.

4. It does not do to neglect the gods of a place, whoever they may be. In the end, they are all one. (p. 58)

Galapas gives Merlin advice that he will eventually come to know in his final conversation with his mother.

5. The gods only go with you, Merlin Emrys, if you put yourself in their path. And that takes courage.

(p. 71) Galapas teaches Merlin that the rest of his life will be hard and difficult, because he is being used by the god and to allow this will take all his courage.

6. 'Would you be afraid if you knew your own end, Cadal?' / ‘Yes, by the dog! Do you?' / ‘Sometimes, in snatches. Sometimes I see it. It fills me with fear.' / ‘What is it then?' / ‘A cave. The crystal cave. Sometimes I think it is death, and at other times it is birth or a gate of vision, or a dark limbo of sleep . . . I cannot tell. But someday I shall know.' (p. 203)

This is a significant quote, because it foreshadows Merlin's end. It will not be seen in this novel, but will be part of Stewart's Arthurian epic.

7. ‘Since I was a child I have had the world to choose from for a father. Out of them all, Aurelius Ambrosius, I would have chosen you . . . After all, what boy would not choose the King of all Britain for his father?' (p. 216)

Merlin not only tells his father how happy he is to have found him, but he also prophesies his coming coronation.

8. ‘No, Merlin, you will never make a king, or even a prince as the world sees it, but when you are grown I believe you will be such a man that, if a king had you beside him, he could rule the world.' (p. 218)

Ambrosius himself has a moment of prophesy, even though he hasn't the Sight. He reveals what we will see in the remainder of the epic: Merlin will help Arthur become the greatest king.

9. . . . all I could see was the whirl of banners and wings and wolves' eyes and sick mouths gaping, and the tail of a comet like a brand, and stars shooting through a rain of blood. (p. 302)

This Merlin's prophecy of Ambrosius' victory.

10. They say that throughout, Ambrosius sat his big white horse, watching, till the flames made the horse as red as the Red Dragon above his head. And high on the fortress tower the White Dragon, showing against a plume of smoke, turned blood red as the flames themselves, then blackened and fell. (p. 328)

This relates how Merlin's prophecy comes true and Ambrosius defeats Vortigern by burning him out of Doward.

11. ‘Don't be afraid for me, Mother. Whatever god uses me, I am content to be his voice and instrument. I go where he sends me. And when he has finished with me, he will take me back. / ‘There is only one God,' she whispered. I smiled at her. ‘ That is what I am beginning to think.' (p. 343)

Merlin finally realizes as he speaks with his mother, that Galapas was right all those years ago: he is in the path of one God.

12. ‘When we meet again, it will be soon enough.' (p. 360)

This is Niniane's final message to her love, Ambrosius, indicating that they will meet again with God.

13. ‘ . . . and while the King lies there under the stone the Kingdom shall not fall . . . and this shall be the heart of Britain, and from this time on all the kings shall be one King and all the gods one God . . . for we shall make between us a King whose name will stand as long as the Dance stands and who will be more than a symbol; she will be a shield and a living sword.' (p. 396)

Merlin speaks these words of the god in the presence of his father. It is significant because it foretells Ambrosius winning his kingdom and later his and Arthur's immortality.

14. ‘It was written in the stars that you would take it, and indeed it is nothing but justice.' (p. 402)

The Irishman tells Merlin that the black stone that is the heart of Ireland had been brought from Britain to Killare and that now it is only justice that the man who was foretold to find it would now return it.

15. ‘I will deck his grave with nothing less than the light itself.' (p. 419)

Merlin tells Tremorinus this when he planned his father's monument at the Giant's Dance. It is significant, because it is Merlin's glorification of the man he believes is the beginning of a greater Britain.

16. ‘. . . I have seen a bright fire burning, and in it a crown, and a sword standing in an altar like a cross.' (p. 448)

Merlin foretells in the presence of Ygraine the sword in the stone which will make Arthur king.

17. ‘But if you have brought bloodshed to Cornwall through me, or death to my husband, then I shall spend the rest of my life praying to any gods there are that you, too, Merlin, shall die betrayed by a woman.' (p. 448)

Even though she is unaware that she has done so, Ygraine foretells Merlin's end: because there will be four men who die that night at Tintagel and because Gorlois dies as well, Merlin will be betrayed by a woman, Vivian, who will trap him the limbo of sleep from which he tells this story.

18. It was Marcia. I saw the tears glistening on her cheeks as she bent her head over what lay in her arms. A child, wrapped warm against the winter night. She saw me and held her burden out to me. ‘Take care of him, ‘ she said and through the shine of the tears, I saw the treads of the stairway outline themselves again behind her. ‘Take care of him . . .' (p. 468)

In this vision at Tintagel, Merlin sees Ygraine's lady-in-waiting bring him the baby, Arthur, who is at the moment of the vision being conceived.

19. ‘And if we had waited until tomorrow, these men, aye, and your servant here as well, would still be living, and Gorlois dead and his lady a widow . . . And mine to claim without these deaths and whisperings.' / ‘But tomorrow you would have begotten a different child.' (p. 479)

Uther blames Merlin for not using his power to a point where men would not have died and he could have claimed Ygraine legitimately. But Merlin knows that another child would have been conceived the next night, not Arthur.

20. ‘It will happen, Cadal, as my father wished and as God willed through me . . . He will be the sum of all our lives, and when he is grown he will come back and be crowned King at Winchester.' (p. 483)

This is Merlin's final promise to Cadal: he will not have died in vain for a great King has been conceived that night and his name will rank as the greatest of all the Kings of Britain.